DESCRIPTION: An International Symposium on Infrared Analysis of Peptides and Proteins is being organized during the 216th Annual Meeting of American Chemical Society, August 23-27, 1998, Boston, MA. The developments of the last decade in the increased application of IR spectroscopy for peptide and protein analysis have helped understand their physical structure and function correlation. However, the technique is still not a commonly used method for the purpose, and remains an optional method for experts only. Several issues related to protein IR analysis range from instrumentation and sampling methods to theoretical and experimental band assignments and derivations. A symposium exclusively dealing with protein IR is therefore appropriate, and is likely to result in exchange of ideas that could synergistically advance the field. Advancement in the field of structural biology is critical to the advancement of biomedical sciences. Among spectroscopic techniques, IR spectroscopy is perhaps the most versatile and sensitive technique for protein structure analysis, in general, and membrane proteins in particular. However, it has not become as yet common technique for the purpose. The proposed symposium will be a small step in that direction. The following sessions and topics are planned. Infrared Spectroscopy; Instrumentation and Basic Techniques: General introduction and overview of the technique; Interpreting Infrared Spectra of Peptides and Proteins; Infrared spectrometers and protein sampling methods; IR band analysis for the secondary structures of proteins. Advanced Protein IR Techniques: IR spectroscopy of membrane proteins; Infrared circular dichroism of peptide and proteins; Time-resolved infrared spectroscopy of proteins; Two- dimensional IR spectroscopy of proteins; Polarized infrared spectroscopy. Application of Protein Ir Spectroscopy: Analysis of protein-protein interactions using isotope-edited IR spectroscopy; Conformational analysis of synthetic peptides using FTIR spectroscopy-potentials and pitfalls; Application of protein IR spectroscopy for determining molten globule in protein unfolding process.